rupert and hannah

Hi Guys,

Hannah here for a change. Well the most exciting thing we have done recently is go to Sanya on the south coast for a weekend, it was great (see photos!). Its about four hours by bus and is definitely going to become a weekend retreat during the year. We stayed in a gorgeous resort in a place called Yalong Bay which means Asian Dragon Bay, its a beautiful 7km stretch of white sand beach and palm trees. Our resort definitely had the nicest stretch of beach and had the coolest swimming pool. We finish teaching at 12 on fridays so were able to get there by 5pm and headed straight for the pool. We had an interesting Buffet dinner with strange combinations of Chinese and Western food, some of the labels of the dishes were really amusing Chinglish but unfortunately I can't remember any. One thing I do remember though is that in the information pack in our room it said that all their food had been created by top "cats", we think they must mean chefs as the food was pretty good. Also, by the buffet there was this guy with a big hot plate making "Indian style pancakes" filled with fruit or meat. He was so funny to watch, he rolled out the pancakes and then picked them up and swivelled them around his head whilst wiggling his hips in the most bizarre way and then let the pancakes blow up into the size of a football before popping them, the Chinese guests were just stood around watching him really seriously and we were sitting nearby having dinner in absolute hysterics at his wiggles. The resort was completely open to the elements and had a lovely sea-breeze running through it, it wasn't very busy so we had a completely relaxing, quiet break. On the Saturday we spent most of the morning on the beach splashing around in the sea on huge inflatable hoops. The water was so clear and warm and then we collapsed onto some sunloungers for a while before spending the afternoon by the pool. The breakfast buffets were amazing, with bacon, sausages and actual proper bread which is a very exciting thing to have in China. Somehow whilst relaxing on a tropical beach I managed to pick up a nasty cold and by Sunday was too ill to enjoy being outside so we headed back to Haikou in the morning rather than have most of Sunday on the beach as planned, it was a bit disappointing but we had a great time during the rest of the weekend and will definitely be going back there as often as we can afford it!
Not much has happened since then. We are both enjoying the teaching. I only have two classes and the one I see for eight hours a week is a little first year class of fifteen students who are doing Home management, training to work in the domestic service industry in either Korea or Israel. It seems quite bizarre, they spend their time learning how to clean and look after children and then have quite a large amount of English lessons. Their English is not that great, Rupert's first years have much better English as they are English Majors, but they are so sweet. They seem really small and young, there is one boy and fourteen girls, the boy seems very shy and a bit overwhelmed by it all, someone told me that the course has only just been opened up to boys and I suppose he is a bit of a guinea pig. Anyway I have been teaching him for a few weeks and have just managed to get him to speak to me, so far its just been the odd word or two but I'm working on it and hopefully soon he'll manage to give me a whole sentence! The rest of them are so cute and keen and I feel I am getting to know them really well, all the other classes here have thirty five or more students so its great to have such a small class.
We're planning to buy bikes this weekend as we live on the edge of town and there are a couple of rivers next to the campus with paths alongside them and we're hoping to go and explore some countryside. Apparently its very quiet and peaceful, you just have to watch out for the odd water buffalo straying onto the path.
We are so enjoying the food here, a friend has translated a couple of menus from restaurants on or next to the campus so we have gone from being able to order from a choice of about eight or so dishes I actually know the names of to having menus with tens of dishes to choose from, it is pretty cool, although now we will definitely be needing the bikes to start working off all this food!
Tomorrow afternoon we are going to attempt to get Rupert's haircut, it should be interesting, we have been recommened a hairdresser but I doubt we'll ever find it and if we do the results could be quite amusing as my Chinese is not really up to describing hairstyles. I am looking forward to it and will be sure to take photos if the results are comical..................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workers seven stories high with just bamboo scaffolding for support. Rather them than me.

Hi, just a quick one from Roop.

We are off to Sanya this weekend, for a weekend of white sands, clear blue seas and hawkers. We are staying in a "luxurious international four star resort" thanks to the generousness of my little sis. Thanks Luce.

Here is what the hotel's website says are its management principles:

"First, not win by the luxurious decoration, wins by the cultural connotation.
Second, not proud with hardware facility, prouds with the software and the outstanding staff.
Third, not self - confident with conventional service, is self-confident with the difference individuality service."

Well, phew, that is great to know!

Hannah will report back with our experiences, and I'll post some photos, but not of food (that'll keep the olds happy).

Hi Rupert here again, I know that may disappoint some people (Esther...) but Hannah is busy cleaning at the moment and doesn't have the energy. So, you'll just have to grin and bare it.

So, it's been a while since our last post, not because we have been that busy, but because we have been relaxing during our holiday. Quite a lot of stuff has happened.

First, we went to a Banquet, held by the Government for selected foreign guests to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. It was held in a 4/5 star Hotel on the coast. It was a very nice location. Before the meal got underway we had to listen to a few speeches, sadly not by the two really famous guests (the ex-President of Thailand and his wife). After the speeches finished, we then got down to eating. The food was really nice, lots of things we haven't eaten before. It was all served buffet style on each table. All the Chinese guests were getting up and wandering around and talking to their friends, then coming back to eat some more food. Much more relaxed than at any UK formal meal. What was funny was the way the meal ended. Suddenly, this lady, who had been announcing things all throughout the meal, suddenly got up and announced that the meal had finished, at which point all the Chinese guest stopped what they were doing and rushed for the door, it's as if everyone suddenly thought, all at the same time, "I'll get my coat". It was bizarre.

After the meal, we went out to a bar with some of the foreigners who were there. It is a thing we aren't keen on repeating, not with those foreigners anyway. Some of them, bar the odd exception, seemed to be in China for all the wrong reasons (mostly because they want an easy life, to live like kings and have any Chinese women they want (so long as they can pay for them)). They seemed to treat the locals quite disrespectfully, expecting them to wait hand on foot on them, so we made our excuses and left. Besides, we have met foreigners here who are very nice, so we won’t mind not being pals with these!

This meal basically marked the beginning of our eight day holiday, to celebrate the founding of the PRC. It aint the best of holidays, since all the teaching days we miss we have to make up by teaching over the next few weekends, after which we will need another holiday. The first day of the holiday we went to Holiday Beach, where we had been a week ago for a BBQ. It was really nice just relaxing on the beach and watching the Chinese world go by. According to the Rough Guide, the Chinese are not to sure what to do when at the beach. They get there all kitted out in the right garb (if it was the 1980s) and then sort of stand at the waters edge and look a bit lost, ohh yeah, and throw handfuls of sand at each other and in the air, that might explain why they all look sad when they leave the beach.....the sand in their eyes!

The next day was one I had been waiting for, for ages; it was time to buy our DVD player. We hadn't chosen the best day, because it was National Holiday, so Haikou was very busy, but it meant we got some good deals. We went with a third year Chinese student, called Lilly, who was very good at bargaining. We got what we think is a good deal. A multi-region DVD player for about £20 with lots of cool features, plus it glows blue (like yours Emma) and looks like a UFO, now we can watch our large DVD collection on the TV. Talking of which, it is even bigger now that we got to borrow loads from our American friends, including half of each season of Friends and loads of films. In addition, we recently picked up another TWO seasons of 24, so we now have three of the four seasons of 24 on DVD, all for about £5! We also bought some little tape players to play the tapes that accompany our books to our students, for £2.50 each. Stuff is pretty cheap out here, and I am sure I will end up with some more gadgets before I leave, they have hundreds of i-pod type things.......We also bought some cool things for the flat, including three big posters of cool pictures (bamboo forests, mountains and some Chinese art) and also a very phunky rainbow striped light, that looks very cool. Our flat now looks very homely and it is a nice place to chill out in.

We took it easy for the next few days. We were thinking of going to the Hawaii capital of the East, Sanya, but had read in many guides that it is very expensive and busy to go during National Holidays, so decided to stay here. We met some friends who did go during the holiday and said it wasn't too busy, but, oh well, we weren't to know, and hopefully it will be cheaper when we go.

During the week we decided to check out the park in Haikou. It was an interesting experience, a bit like being tortured. There was some Chinese opera going on in the park. Imagine two cats in drag having a fight late at night with loudspeakers attached to them, and you kind of get an idea of what Chinese opera sounds like. It looks very cool though. The park itself was pretty run down. We also decided to have a go on the peddaloes (yup, Ridge and Gillie, you can't keep me away from a peddaloe). It was shaped like a swan and kinda cool. The pond was nothing special, although it did have some interesting local fauna - some vagrants who lived and washed on the lake-side and the first birds we have seen, some wild kingfishers, very beautiful.

A few days later we went for supper in our cool bar in town, called Red Ant. I can't remember if we have described it before, but you have to slide your hand into this gap to open this automatic sliding door to get inside. Once in, it is all moodily lit, with pictures of Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan on the walls, lots of comfy sofas and telephones on each table to call one another. It is the coolest bar I've been to in a long time, we are going there tonight to cheer us up after all our lesson planning today (which i am clearly working on so hard right now, given that I am writing this). The food there is excellent, so people, if you fancy a night out in a trendy bar in China, you know where to call.

We also went out to eat in a Japanese restaurant recently. It was really nice, and my first taste of real Japanese food, including Sake and proper sushi (not too dissimilar to the stuff you get from Boots and M&S). Hannah absolutely loved it, and we are planning to go to Japan sometime, (we are talking in years here not in months). It had cool little booths in which people sat and ate, and very cute decor.

Last night was rather amusing, we had been at Holiday Beach again, wandering up the coast to see what was round the corner (more luxury Chinese hotels, who seem to think that the best way to decorate the beach they own is to dump a load of red bricks and concrete slabs on it and let them get washed out to sea, and palm trees). We got back and went to a restaurant that we had been taken to when we first arrived, where we had lovely sweet and sour fish. We tried to order it again, alongside some pork and cashew nuts and some egg and tomatoes (kinda like an egg and tomato omelette). We were less than successful. When we got back to our flat to open up the food, we found we had ordered raw fish with slices of bamboo, some weird sea food vegetable thing which stank and some minging egg and tomato soup. We were less than impressed and suddenly lost our appetite!

That’s about it. The only other thing to say is that I am doing a, what they call symposium, but i think it is basically a lecture, on modern western dance music, my chosen topic. Obviously I am in seventh heaven as it gives me the chance to talk about my favourite topic and play loads of tunes, to a captive audience (or should that be held captive). So I am busy making a fancy PowerPoint with loads of pictures and samples of music and stuff. I doubt my audience will understand half the stuff I say, but they can read the ppt slides and listen to the songs and they should get the picture. I think I am annoying Hannah coz I am spending ages preparing for it, but it will be worth it. It is not taking place till November, so I will say how it went then.

We have got lots of teaching to do over the next few weeks, to make up for lost time. After that, on our first free weekend, we will go to Sanya for a long weekend, we can't wait.

Laters.

So, the photos will not make much sense since the text I wrote has disappeared, grrr, it took me ages to write. So, until I find the strength to re-write it all here is a little over-view to keep it in context.

We were invited to a formal banquet held by the government, attended by the Governor of Hainan, the ex-president of Taiwan (and his wife) and foreign guest (like us). It was to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The food was amazing and it was great fun. Then we went to a beach the next day and chilled out, it is the start of our eight day holiday (though we have to make up for the lost days by teaching over the next few weekends).

Finally, I have been asked to give a lecture on any aspect of Western culture. So I am gonna waffle on about dance music for two hours, heaven! Loads of foreign teachers get asked to do this, it is nothing special.

Right, that is roughly what has happened over the last few days, we will add more detail later...

Oi, those are MY ultra-trendy swimming trunks! 

A boat going past, with Haikou in the background. 

Hannah, being Chinese at the beach. 

All the foriegn teachers from our college, with some Chinese people. 

A selection of some of the food. Notice the 'full' glasses of wine! 

A view of the main table during the banquet.  

Hannah and me, and Jordan, an American teacher from our College, before the meal. 

This is the hotel, looking back from the beach (spot the security guard looking for bad people). 

This is the beach by the hotel where we had the banquet.